5 years under my belt and here is what works for me and mine: 1. I invested in HST+ (Homeschool Tracker Plus for those who are newbies). It allows me to create lesson plans and THEN submit them to an assignment sheet (ie give them a date). It is SUPER easy to reschedule things when life happens. I can print transcripts, weekly assignment sheets, create the annual school calendar, etc. I even am able to input our planned days off (we school 6 weeks on, 1 week off and NEVER on someone's birthday!). When I push a lesson plan to the assignment, it defaults to not assign things on days we are scheduled to be off. It is a super program and very easy to use. It is the oil to our school year for sure! 2. To plan SOTW, I use Excel to list each week down the side and Reading, Literature, Map, Coloring Page, and Project across the top. At the intersections, I enter the corresponding information. Some weeks don't have a project, but it allows me to figure out how to get it all done and not overdo either. 3. My books are all ordered by June 1. 4. The last month of the current school year, I start surveying the classroom. Did the furniture layout work for us? What needs to be rearranged? Can anything retire? Is there a good way to rearrange the room (we all enjoyed new classrooms with new books growing up)? 5. I go subject by subject and list supplies needed: spiral notebook or composition, paper, colored pencils, folders, tin foil, clay, what ever will be needed. This list MUST be done by June 30th. Why? Because Walmart starts having rock bottom sales on supplies in July and there are shortages by August. 6. I only assign stuff 6 weeks at a time and use my week off breaks to do the upcoming 6 weeks. Life happens. I have come to accept that. 7. I start researching curriculum changes needed around March. 8. I print assignment sheets out of HST+ every Monday morning for the kids.

For your 1yo, I cannot recommend Stephen Cartwright 123 highly enough. It has been a favorite of all 3 of my kids and to spite how many hundreds of times I have read this book to each of them, I am not tired of it. The Usborne Science Encyclopedia will come in handy in around 3-4th grade (maybe sooner depending on your child). I Can Draw People and I Can Draw Animals have been a good spring board for my kids drawing. I am a bigger fan of Draw Write Now but both have had their place in our artistic drawing development. Usborne Aesops Fables is pretty but many families prefer more classic art. If not, a great addition to any homeschool bookshelf. If you plan to use Elemental Science, she uses quite a few Usborne books which my kids have enjoyed very much. We have not been the biggest fans of their craft books, but I know plenty of families who have enjoyed them.

Double Ditto here! WWE definitely seems to be helping us but I didn't make the investment until I saw the need. If your dc just "gets it", don't double duty unnecessarily... JMO.

We are going to do a summer science camp using Bob Jones Online Science, grade 3. Before I tell you the price, please realize that it comes with the books AND 18 months access to the online lessons. If your dd doesn't finish during the summer, she can putz at it through the school year, other breaks, or even next summer. Okay... $300 for most elementary online classes. BJU tends to get very good reviews, though exceptions do exist. HTH.

We used Elemental Science - Biology for a 1st and 3rd grader this year. It was super easy to adapt to both ages. My first grader would copy the main idea sentence from the white board and my 3rd grader would copy that sentence and she and I would come up with 2 more together (3rd grader = 3 sentences). The materials suggested are super age appropriate for a K and a 2nd. You could just have the K sit in and enjoy and have the 2nd grader copy a sentence or 2. It is more than enough. There is usually 1 experiment a week - all stuff most people have in the house and take less than 5 minutes TOTAL. Lesson plans are done for you. It is an open and go and the author does a GREAT job of following the classical model. There are even suggested supplemental reading lists to coordinate with the material, should you choose to do so. The teacher manual can be downloaded at www.elementalscience.com for about $16? Science never took more than 5-15 minutes and the kids begged to do it first nearly every day... it is almost May and we started using it in August of last year. It was a big hit at our house and took very little work from me.

Got it. We use R&S for grammar and it is working great for us. We use MM for math and again, it's working so I shall leave it alone. Writing... my nemesis. Writing has some skill weaknesses so we grabbed WWE and it is showing promise and helping us where needed. Have a great day and thank you for the explanation.

I keep reading on both the younger boards and the higher boards that CLE is wonderful. What is so great about it? And why I haven't I heard about it until recently? and on the flip side... what's wrong with it? And for a point of perspective... we LIKE a Christian education and perspective so let's not knock the fact it isn't secular. Thanks from a mom who is tired from teaching EVERY subject EVERY day ALL day to 2 kids with a toddler under her feet. :)

You guys are great! My hubby and I are both science minded. The kids beg to do science first every day. By sheer nature of elementary years, there isn't as much science in our day as everyone would like (time spent on the basics: reading, writing, grammar, math, etc). SO... taking ALL of your feedback into consideration, this is what we decided to do with your wisdom: BJU Online Science Camp. What am I talking about? Basically, we are ordering a grade year of BJU Science today, in our case 3rd grade - topic choice. We finish Elemental Science at the end of May, just in time for the online classes to become available. The kids will continue science using the BJU program through the summer. The caveat is they must do at least 1 class a day. I watched the sample video. I know my kids. They will eat up a week in 1 day. They simply LOVE science, science videos, Magic School Bus, SL Discover and Do videos, all science shows on PBS... you get the picture. This will give everyone a very nice taste of how the online stuff works AND give them something fun and constructive during the summer. $300 for 2 kids to go to science camp is dirt cheap! Lol. And if they finish during our summer break - great. If they don't, no biggie... we have until Dec '12 to finish. Thank you for the wisdom. I look forward to seeing how it works out.

We bought this one a few weeks ago: http://www.amazon.com/Brother-MFC-7840W-Multifunction-Wireless-Interfaces/dp/B0016ZQ566/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1303780662&sr=1-8 It is twice your price point but I LOVE it.

A friend on the board suggested I pop over to the high school part of the board and start reading when I can spare a minute to help me get an idea of what the rest of the road looks like (my oldest enters 4th/5th in the fall). Without trying or specifically looking for this point, I have been surprised at how many families have used or use BJU DVD/Online program at the higher grades. I was even more surprised at the comments referencing things really step up and become quite rigorous around 7th grade (not a bad thing for our house). After reading this, I am starting to wonder if maybe I should move her over to the BJU DVD program around 6th grade for the bulk of her subjects. Would I be nuts to consider this? The kids are thoroughly enjoying SOTW 1 right now and Elemental Science biology. She is doing fine with R&S 3 grammar. Okay, oh, wise homeschooling moms.... let me have it. :D

:iagree:

We did BJU and LOVED it. Then I had a second child join the classroom. Ummm... it is tough to TEACH 2 kids a complete BJU curriculum at 2 different grade levels. But if I could and had the money and need, I would do their DVD or online program in a heart beat. I seriously consider it for high school science (Cathy Duffy top 100 pick... though that may be just the book but surely the DVD just enriches it, right?). Anyway, BJU is solid and easy. Oh, and we did HOD but it was more labor intensive for me than I wanted and the kids weren't overly excited about the book choices. However, I have continued to follow the author's philosophy and approach to independent reading: 3 weeks from every genre every year. I do not do all the literary analysis and workbook stuff after listening to SWB's online seminar/talk about literary analysis in the elementary years. HTH.

Ahhh.... I would approach it from a different angle. We school 6 weeks on, 1 week off (2 at Christmas), and then take a soft 6-8 week break during the summer. Soft break means we use those summer weeks to work 1-2 hours a day to do math practice, needed review, etc. So, here is my thought: "Kids, how would you like to take more breaks during the school year? Say a WHOLE week off after every 6 weeks of school? (Find me a kid who wouldn't love this idea.) Well, to start this, we are going to have a soft summer to prepare and begin our new school calendar to do some review and such. We are only talking 1-2 hours a day - the faster you get your stuff done, the more you get to play."

We have been doing spelling via dictation for the past 2 years. My oldest was passing traditional spelling tests on Friday but would forget how to spell the same word 2 weeks later... so we moved to dication. It has gone GREAT! But now I have 2 students doing dictation - and everything else - and I am running out of time, especially with lil' sis running around and wanting to be in the classroom. Soooo... I know the addage, "If it isn't broken, don't fix it." I agree... but the person who said this clearly did not have a toddler! Lol. I am looking for independent spelling program suggestions. My oldest is going into 4th, my middle into 2nd. I have considered Rod & Staff (we like their grammar), Building Spelling Skills, and I've been reading posts on others. AND because we have not done spelling "traditionallly", we don't know a thing about phonics rules... which I wish they did. I read a hint that Websters Speller does a great job of this? Thoughts? Suggestions?

6weeks on, 1 week off, with a 6 week summer break during July and first half of August. We always start back after my son's birthday. :) We take 2 weeks at Christmas, any day daddy is home for work day vacations (Good Friday, Memorial Day type stuff), and I refuse to teach on anyone's birthday in our house... too busy making cakes, wrapping gifts, and enjoying that child. :) I find that by doing 6 weeks on, 1 week off, we haven't burned out the way we used to. The kids are thrilled with the breaks. I am able to cook ahead during my week off, take field trips, mini vacations to visit family, etc. It has been a great fit for us. HTH.

We use the same program but I only worry about handwriting when there is a problem or they are learning. My dd dropped handwriting for a year because she had printing down and then we picked it back up for a semester as she learned cursive. She learned it and now I just ensure she does her narrations and such neatly or I make her redo it. It has worked well for us and kept the fluff to a minimum.

That is so encouraging for those of us just starting WWE! Thank you!!

Biblioplan schedules SOTW and has conservative choices.

I'm TOTALLY with you. I can NOT justify spending that kind of money on TOG. My dh said if I were to spend that kind of money, he would rather I shop over at HomeScienceTools.com. Lol We opted to do SOTW, add lots of library books as suggested in the Activity guide, do some projects (my kids would love more), etc. It has been a GREAT fit for us and allowed us not to slave to TOG. I have read over and over TOG is not truly designed for families with their oldest in elementary. PM me if you want to know I went about planning the whole year using SOTW. Also, if you want to see how much fun SOTW can be, pop over to Angela's blog at www.satorismiles.com She is oodles of inspiration for me to keep it fun. And as far as the strong Christian content, we just talk about God with everything. Middle school we may likely pop over to MOH which has a much stronger Christian perspective, so I understand.

Here's a game that might help: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm There are games to teach geography for all of the continents and some other stuff. I found it on www.satorismiles.com blog. She always knows cool stuff!

PM Jennefer@SSA. I know she uses them, or has in the past, and might be able to share how she did this.

Honestly? I wouldn't keep up with it if the workbook wasn't there holding my hand. The wb ensures I do what I set out to do. I posted the same question a few weeks ago and had an overwhelming response the WB is the only way to go. There were a FEW moms who thought the textbook/TM was sufficient, but they were the minority. I've only used WWE3 for 2 weeks and it has been great to be able to open and go and have 1 less thing to plan. BTW, the student pages are the last half of the workbook so you have them whether you purchase printed or .pdf. They sell the student pages as a seperate .pdf on Peace Hill Press if you want to be able to quickly print and go. This info comes with a warning - there are over 180 student pages. It might be cheaper to purchase the printed student pages for about $10 and have them shipped than to print them yourself. Though a laser printer wouldn't be so bad. Another idea is to cut the spine off the WB, hand the story pages to your student and have them write in a separate notebook for the narrations and dictations.

Let me guess... darn boards! I love this place and curse it at the same time some days! Lol. I understand where you are coming from for sure. Okay, here is what has worked well for us (my oldest JUST turned 9 and my middle is 6.5 and on the more advanced side but I refuse to say gifted): 9yo: WWE3 because we needed to work on these skills just finished R&S English 3 and will start R&S4 in the fall (short, sweet assignments) spelling via dictation - we have a seperate dictation that focuses on spelling, method is a little different. PM me and I'll start a seperate thread on how I do this... and how I do it for free Elemental Science - additional practice in the narration, writing, copywork, etc; she copies the first sentence that is the main idea we come up with as a class (read 6.5yo brother), works with me to come up with 2 supporting sentences (3rd grade = 3 sentences, 4th grade = 4 sentences, lining up with my interpretation of TWTM) SOTW1 - same as science but history :) Math - moving over to Math Mammoth at respective levels Daily read aloud, often tied into history but not always Daily independent reading following Drawn Into the Heart of Reading - they read something from every genre throughout the year and discuss it with me Critical Thinking - homegrown using Wii's Big Brain Academy, board games, word problems from Singapore Math, Games magazine Piano - taught by mom for now My 6.5yo is pretty similar but using FLL right now, will start R&S2 in the fall and WWE2 in the fall. He is currently doing spelling dictation also, which I wasn't going to start right now but he kept expressing huge interest in spelling and my dictation is so gentle it has been fine. Regarding handwriting: I have only worried about it when they are learning. So my oldest had handwriting this past fall as she was learning to write cursive. My middle is doing handwriting because his letter formation for some letters is atrocious but I don't see him doing handwriting next fall. HTH.

I would say the SOTW guide also. Those activities bring the info to life for all ages, not just elementary.

exactly. While her answer makes perfect sense, technically it is incorrect.